I didn’t get any photos today, but wanted to make note of a couple of things for future reference.
A mixed flock of warblers (and probably chickadees) moved through the yard this afternoon. I didn’t get a chance to look too closely, but I saw at least one (male) Wilson’s Warbler, another very yellow (either Yellow or Wilson’s) warbler, and Connor noted Orange-crowned and Townsend’s Warblers.
I did go for a walk around Totem Park this first half of the afternoon. One thing I noticed is just how large the purple sweet-cicely (Osmorhiza purpurea) has grown. Now that it’s starting to die back, with leaves yellowing and ends of the stems getting black, it stands out more against the rest of the vegetation. I usually pay it most attention in the spring when it is blooming. At that time it is relatively small, though looks fairly well developed. I think I had noticed at some level that it got a little bigger (taller, especially) after blooming, but I just had not really noticed how much bigger it ultimately gets.
After some rain showers this morning, the weather late this afternoon and into evening turned partly cloudy. It was nice to see some sun during this summer of rain, though I didn’t have time to go out and spend much time in it.
On today’s calls the topic was using “storyteller’s mind.” The idea is to bring to mind as much of the full sensory experience as possible when telling a story (even if you don’t explicitly speak of it). I first heard about this idea a few years ago, and over the intervening time have tried to do it a little bit, though not consistently (and with limited, though suggestive, success). Today one person shared something that was particularly interesting to me – that there was a time in telling a story that time seemed to fold over and the ‘past’ that was being spoken actually felt like it was happening in (maybe sort of overlain on) the present moment of the telling. I don’t know how often or easily that happens for folks, but I think it would be an interesting way to experience and/or practice telling a story.